SEO, user cards and search from the browser — What The Cucumbertown January Looked like
Wow! A whole month has gone by since the birth of 2016… And it feels like just yesterday when we were telling you about what was cooking at Cucumbertown for December 2015. Sigh, time does really fly. And now it’s time now for us to tell you what the new year has brought to team Cucumbertown and our bloggers.
Like most beginnings, the first month of 2016 was packed solid with various things that needed to be done, especially after the lethargy of December. But like a typical start, we have nothing yet to scream about, in terms of new features, updates or just general announcements. It was mainly a lot of little stuff coming together to make some pretty significant changes for Cucumbertown and our bloggers.
Features, Updates and more
One of the biggest updates we have for you is that our efforts to improve the overall quality of the blogs is paying off. Search traffic has gone up by a great percentage for many of our bloggers, with a lot of minor changes, including implementation of CDN, serving blogs from an https address, fixing broken links and so on. Check out the difference in Nandita Iyer’s Saffron Trail’s search traffic in the last month:
Here’s everything you want to know about what to give these results.
Another thing that we are pretty cheery about is the implementation of the first stage of user cards. User cards was a feature that came after a request from Richa, of MyFoodStory, where you can see all the information you want about your commenters. Things like their blog links, Twitter handles, Pinterest, Yummly, Instagram, Facebook etc. At the moment we are showing links to the commenters’ FB and Google Plus profiles, should they choose to provide this. Soon the remaining will also be added, so that bloggers can track where their audience is coming from, and help build their connections and relationships with their audience. The user card revamp is also setting a precedent to a larger revamp of the comments section which should happen in 3 months.
Here’s how a user card looks now. You can see this by hovering on the user’s name on the comment.
And after nearly three months of back and forth discussions, over a 100 mails and countless reviews later, we now have an updated TOS. Yes, yes, we should have done it a loooooong time back, but seriously, this is something that can make even the most optimistic of us sigh. And not in the good way. But it’s done now, and yay for that!
Check out Cherian’s thoughts on the TOS and the process of scripting it. He get’s most of my emotions when I see ‘Terms of Service’ bang on!
Besides this, we also have a new way for you to search your favourite CT bloggers’ recipes straight from the browser. While we know that most people prefer to go straight to the blog and search, you can never tell, when you may fancy going straight to business, instead of being distracted by the yummy food that the food blogs are usually full of. Easy to forget about wanting a recipe for herbal tea, when you see that decadent chocolate cake, right?
And now for the Monetization Updates
This month we have been focussing on monitoring the changes that implementation of DFP has done for our bloggers. January being a lean month, would not be a comprehensive example of how well this ad management is working out, we should be able to come up with a satisfactory analysis by the end of February. We are also working on initiating tie-ups with brands and also exploring options for content licensing.
Those are the little changes we have been working on this past month. Now for what to look forward to.
What’s in the Pipeline
While we hate to keep you waiting for anything, we are constantly reminded of the fact that Rome really wasn’t build in a day, with each new thing we want to do. So in the next few months you will be seeing a few new things on the Cucumbertown food blogs.
One big project that we are busy with at the moment is the new version of the Recipe Writer. I have had a sneak peak into what it’s going to look like, and I’m impressed. Clean, minimalistic and so easy to use. Besides the scheduling option and the linking of ingredients and multiple recipe support, the new editor comes preloaded with a wealth of data that you could fill in, making your recipes look crisp and professional. Things like passive cooking time, method of preparation and ingredient mapping will really take the editor to the next level. Stay tuned to find out all about the new editor, which should be released in the next couple of months.
New Bloggers Alert!
And we have additions to the family! Aparna Balasubramanian’s beautiful blog My Diverse Kitchen is now on the Cucumbertown Food Blogging platform. And that’s not all, we also have Tarika Singh’s super popular blog To the T has also joined the family! And we have lots of interesting blogs that will be joining soon. Stay tuned to hear all about them in our upcoming editions!
And the thing that really drives us, Love from our bloggers and readers!
So that was January in a nutshell for you. We have lots of interesting things lined up for you in the coming months, including a report exclusively for what’s happening with our monetisation efforts. We are also continuing with our monthly office hours and hope to bring you podcasts from the team in the near future. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Cucumbertown Magazine to stay informed about what’s going on at the world’s first food blogging platform, Cucumbertown.
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